Category: Blog

There is a television in our cookie kitchen

A giant one. It was there before the conversion to bakery, so it’s grandfathered in and thus is allowed to stay… On Tuesdays, I spend my whole workday with my friend Jon Taffer watching Bar Rescue. He doesn’t know we’re friends but that’s okay. He’s given me so much free business advice and guidance I can’t help but consider him my friend.

Bar Rescue

In case you don’t know, Bar Rescue is a show on SpikeTV.  Jon Taffer and his varying team of experts go around the country and attempt to rescue failing bars. It’s. So. Great. Often on Tuesdays they show episodes back to back all day. I can’t turn it off, whether I’ve seen that episode before or not. I survived college by working in bars and nightclubs. Perhaps that contributes to my fascination of the show. Now as an entrepreneur I’m always looking for business wisdom. I know cookies and cocktails seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, but most of the issues raised in Bar Rescue are vital to any business that serves customers anything they might eat or drink:

• How do we grow?
• How do we stay relevant?
• What can we improve?
• What should we be doing that we aren’t?
• Are we giving our customers what they are looking for?

There are themes that repeat throughout the episodes that are vital to my business, if you work in food and beverage service, I bet they are critical to you as well.

Top 5 lessons from Jon Taffer and Bar Rescue

#1: Cleanliness is….Everything.

If you’re offering edible-anything to customers, you better run a tight ship. When you’re done cleaning, clean some more. Not so easily said for bakeries, where powdered sugar and flour like to float through the air to tiny crevices of worktables and mixer handles. Theoretically proper insurance would cover us if someone ever got sick from our products, but that money won’t restore the the damage to our brand and reputation. Don’t take that risk. When your workplace is unclean you’re gambling with the health of your clientele. Doing that makes you a jerk. Don’t be a jerk, clean, clean, clean.

#2: Systems are your friend.

Everything should have a system or a process. You can’t just wing it.

How do you charge/bill customers?

How do you account for inventory?

What glass is that cocktail served in and how is that cookie packaged?

Have systems and reevaluate: are your systems working? If not, how can you improve them? Where are the lapses?

#3 Efficiency is King.

This piggy-backs on the systems philosophy. Again and again I’ve watched as Jon Taffer and his team have scrutinized the layout of the back bar, counting every wasted step as lost money. Look at the layout of your workspace. What’s working? What’s not working? Our space has expanded as we’ve grown, and we reorganize about once a month to try to optimize efficiency. Three steps might not matter when we have 5 orders, but when we have 50, it’s everything. If our drivers show up and we aren’t ready to load, then that’s lost time. If I’m working faster in my station than the gal in the next station because she keeps having to cross the room for one step of her process, then that needs to be fixed, yesterday. Efficiency is king and time is money.

#4: What’s your market?

Who are you selling to? If you don’t know you better learn quickly. If you’re in the cocktail business, you can’t just say, “Anyone over 21,” that’s not realistic. If you own a birthday cookie cake business, you can’t just say everyone who likes cookies…that won’t work either (believe me, I thought that when we first launched). Location, location, location.

If you’re brick and mortar you had better do your research to learn who lives and works near your location and market to them. If you’re just starting out and choosing a location you need to know the demographics. I like Taffer’s approach: know your market and go after it.  A business in a “Dual-Income, No Kids” area can cater to families, but it won’t succeed. Your business is a ‘victim’ of your location with a storefront. You have to cater to the population at hand. If you don’t know what that is you’re in trouble.

With an online business like ours, it’s a little different. We have a massive delivery range. Theoretically, our reach is greater than a single location. For an online delivery business like ours, the question has to expand to “How do we reach this segment of our market?” At CookieText, we try to work in waves, because too many ideas spread too thin are ineffective. The question for us is what’s the next-best customer/demographic to introduce our product to and how do we reach them?

Often it’s a subset of people: college parents for nearby universities (we make this push at August move-in), people who have birthday celebrations(we form strategic partnerships with places that host children’s parties), corporations who give gifts (we approach them in the Fall, prior to Holiday gift-giving), friends and family of expectant mothers…

Maybe our working in waves is actually a result of a small marketing budget, but I prefer to think it’s from the wisdom that one eats an elephant one bite at a time. Anyone who’s marketing and doesn’t know who their target market is is wasting time and money. Do your research, don’t generalize, and focus.

#5: Your employees make or break your business, and you can make or break them.

Hire wisely. Treat your staff well. Evaluate their effectiveness: quite simply, can they do the tasks you need them to do? If not, it’s probably your fault, not theirs.

Did you train them? Consistency is an integral part of customer service. Training is key. Everyone needs to learn to do things so they turn out the same way. You don’t want to have 2 margaritas at a bar and have them taste entirely different. Nor do I want a CookieText made by Liz to taste or be packaged differently than one made by myself. It’s all in the training. On those systems, you established back in step #2.

Remember your employees are not your underlings. Treat them with kindness, respect, and gratitude. Owning the business does not dub one king or queen of the world. Being the boss means the final decision is yours, but you’re an idiot if you ignore the insight of your employees. You’re a jerk if you treat them as subordinates, or don’t realize that for every good employee there are 10 bad ones waiting to take their place. Do all that you can and should to keep good employees, and don’t just keep them, keep them as happy in their job as you can by appreciating them and acknowledging their contribution to your success. That said, there are no free rides. If a properly trained employee consistently underperforms, it’s time to let them go.

Check Out Bar Rescue

Jon Taffer is all about exceeding expectations and eliciting good reactions from your customers. The Five Lessons I’ve learned barely scratch the surface of what a motivated business owner can learn from him. You can learn more about him at www.jontaffer.com or find his book Raise the Bar on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. His show on SpikeTV airs new episodes Sundays at 9pm Eastern Time.

Cookie Text to the Rescue

No school for the 4th day in a row…and you’re wondering what in the world to do with those children of yours that are climbing the walls.

We challenge them to make a Cookie Text video. We don’t want to put too many parameters on it, but we had to have some rules, so here’s the deal:

• Entrants must be school age: 4-18
• Entries should come from within our service/delivery area.
• Submit a video by uploading to a sharing site like Vimeo or YouTube.
• Length: At least 30 seconds and no more than 2 minutes.
• Video should be accurate…ex. use the right names for things associated with the Cookie Text brand, don’t mention a flavor we don’t offer, etc
• Music is welcome but should be created by you. We can’t use popular music without purchasing the rights to it. So we want to use your stuff!
• Need props? Let us know what you need and we’ll do our best.
• Funny? Touching? Silly? All those are good. We are looking for creative, original, and accurate.
• Submissions imply we can use your work to promote Cookie Text.

All submissions that MEET THE GUIDELINES AND RULES will be considered and the submitting individual/team will get a free CookieText^® cookie cake!

Winners Receive

The Winning entry will receive $100 and if it’s submitted via a school/class we’ll donate an additional $100 to your classroom. Unless, of course, you’d rather have more CookieText^® cookie cakes!

Deadline for all submissions March 15, 2015

Email your name(s), contact information, and a link to your video to tweet[at]www.cookietext.com

We are a small operation here and can’t employ lawyers or insurers to validate our contests. Trust that every effort will be made to run a fair and honest and unbiased contest. We will do everything we’ve committed to do in the way of prizes.

So now when they tell you their bored, you can combat boredom, and challenge them with cookies and cash! Please share this post with educators you know in our region who might be able to work this challenge into their curriculum (if we EVER return to school)!

It’s not something I talk about often, the loss of my parents. But there are times when it’s foremost in my mind. Birthdays–mine, my children’s, and this week, the company’s, do not pass without my wishing my mom and dad were here.

The Loss of My Mother

Long, long before Cookie Text, LLC, I was a little girl growing up in Phoebus, Virginia. I had freckles, a pug nose, and as many siblings as fingers on my hands. One day I was woken up and most all of them were gathered in the kitchen. My father, seated at the head of the table, told each of us to grab a sibling and hang on. I left that table without a mom. She had died in the night. A heart attack. I was nine years old, days from entering 4th grade.

I made lemonade in a brown pitcher. Family came. Family left. Still no Mom. I’d sit in Mrs. Young’s 4th grade class and she’d tell us to, “get your Mom to sign the paper,” and I’d feel a wave of confusion, sadness, and grief that I was certain no one else at Moton Elementary understood. I didn’t even understand.

The Loss of My Father

Fast forward nine years. I’m a senior in high school. This time there’s a diagnosis. My dad has cancer. Terminal: Lung, liver, and brain. He lasted a year. He died when I was home for Christmas break my Freshman year of college. I went back to school and no one knew. It wasn’t like I’d suddenly left mid-term. People weren’t asking, “Why weren’t you in class for a week,” they were asking, “How was your Christmas?”

I felt alone. I lived in the college town at the time, and took the bus to campus. I remember thinking that I’d never hurt myself, but if I stepped off the Centro and got hit by a truck, that would be okay.

Somehow life went on.

I went on. Like the thought on the bus, it never occurred to me to voluntarily quit. If something happened out of my control that would be okay…but otherwise I just kept going. In all the weirdness that was my childhood. In all the tragedy and unknown, somehow it never occurred to me to stop moving forward.

My Business Turns Three

And for some reason, amidst this week’s peppy Facebook posts, I find myself more reflective on Cookie Text’s third birthday than usual. Maybe it’s because there have been so many moments in the past year that I’ve questioned it all. There have been things that I struggled with regarding the business, especially trying to balance it and my family.

• Am I misappropriating my time?
• Am I neglecting the boys?
• Is this ever going to amount to anything?
• What in the world ever made me think I could start a business and then run a company?

I know, I know! Not my typical upbeat self. I realized one day about a month ago that I could quit. That was weird. I realized almost in the same thought that that’s never been who I am. I stay on the path. I keep moving down the road.

I want to think that the stick-to-it-ness came from my Mom and Dad.

Good People Show Up

I believe, however, the reality is it came more from the aftermath of losing them. It came from the people that appeared in my life whenever I needed a lift up or a push onward. Again and again they showed up. They still show up to this day.

From my third grade best friend who appeared at my mom’s graveside, to my 4th grade friend’s mom who would make time when I spent the night to sit and chat with me. I mattered to a mom, that mom, even if I couldn’t ‘matter’ to my own.

From my friend Belinda’s mom who gave me her daughter’s hand-me-downs before she was finished with them because she knew my widowed Dad was overwhelmed to the guy that worked with my brother and got us younger kids passes to the YMCA so we could get out of the heavy house we were living in.

In college it was the coworker who asked me to learn to play racquetball with her. I think her rides to the gym kept me from stepping in front of that aforementioned truck. She’s a best friend to this day.

I could go on year by year: people that passed into my life and showed extreme kindness. People that formed a virtual safety net to keep me from crashing down. People that provided the exact encouragement I needed at the precise moment. They still exist in my life today. They take many forms: siblings, friends, secretaries at my kids’ school…they now even appear as customers.

Look for the Helpers

No one can stop horrible things from happening. There are going to be hard times, both in life and in business. But as Mr. Rogers said, ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

It’s these helpers that lift me up. It’s these helpers that keep on believing in me and in CookieText. Even when I can’t make sense of it all. The helpers have never let me down. I just always know I need to take more time appreciating their presence than lamenting my losses.

Birthdays Can Be Bittersweet

Birthdays without the ones you love are a little bittersweet. Of course it’s awful that my Mom and Dad are gone. It’s sad my boys never met them. It stinks that my parents have never had a CookieText^®. But birthdays when you’ve got so very many people that have graced your life, they have to be more joyous than anything else. I have been blessed beyond measure for years with people that lighten my life, encourage my dreams, and make my heart soar.

Besides, as my brother Jerome says, “I bet they have CookieText^® cookie cakes in Heaven.”

So on that note, thank you all of you helpers for walking this road with me. It’s not without it’s valleys, but the peaks are oh-so-great.

Cheers to Year Three, and many more to come!

The question was posed today

As a business owner and salesperson, do you know what you are really selling? Well, unbelievably delicious cookie cakes, of course…but clearly the person asking the question was looking for something more meaningful. So I thought for a bit. What Are You Selling?

Last week, when we sent out a CookieText^® cookie cake to the staff of a local nursing home, we were delivering heart-felt gratitude from the family of the cared for.

When we went into the nearby subdivision and dropped off a CookieText^® cookie cake to a new mother, we were celebrating the joy that new life emits.

The CookiePic^® cookie cake for the woman who suggested to her friend that she use the same real estate agent as she did, and told her why, well that was from that Real Estate agent. It was two-fold…it was a thank you and a promise she won’t let her down.

The sampler pack of Emoti-Cookie^® cookie cakes going to CNU tomorrow, that’s love from afar, from a mom who misses her boy.

And that CookieText^® cookie cake that high-schooler used to ask his date to homecoming, well that was sweetness with a touch of hope.

The CookieText^® cookie cake I dropped off to my friend, for her family to share as they gathered to mourn the passing of the grandfather, there I was delivering our family’s sympathy and compassion.

We’re Selling More Then Cookie Cakes

So sure, we sell CookieText^® and CookiePic^® cookie cakes, Emoti-Cookie^® Text cookie cakes and Emoti-Cookie^® Pic cookie cakes. In so many delicious flavors, no less. But I contend that what we’re really selling is more complex than that. I think we deliver a lot more than cookie cakes. Cookie Text is about helping people to share their personal message exactly the way they want to say it.